Vanessa's Favorite Films of All-Time Part Five: Mulan
This blog originally started as a long, long master post of my favorite films, but because I like making gifs too much, I had to break each movie out into their own films. 😅 What? You’ll read it either way.
Here’s part five:
Mulan (1998) aka Who Showed Vanessa Gender is a Societal Construct
Mulan, directed by Tony Bancroft & Barry Cook. Courtesy of Disney.
Mulan will always have a special place in my heart. It taught me a lot about how expectations of both men and women, girls and boys can literally kill us. It taught me that you don’t need a son to carry a legacy. It taught me there are dads out there who love their daughters FOR their strength and don’t see it as a flaw or the enemy. It taught me that drag (Ping was Mulan’s drag persona!!!) can be a source of power, rebellion and might.
I get so emotional every time I watch this movie and even got emotional making the gifs for this blog. This movie is rooted in so much of my self-confidence, how I view the feminine/masculine duality that lives in me and what I value in all of my familial relationships. This is a movie I will show my kid as a lesson plan for how they should live their lives. REBEL, QUESTION EVERYTHING, PROTECT THE ONES YOU LOVE!
This is a movie that really blurs the lines of what it means to be a man or a woman or a dedicated son or daughter. In the end, your gender doesn’t matter … what you do with your inherent power is the only thing that matters. People can roll their eyes all they want at the phrase “gender is a societal construct” but it’s true. Many of the roles we place on people across the gender spectrum are detrimental and inefficient.
Put more women in male-dominated sports, high-ranking military roles, even fucking construction sites; more men belong in the kitchen, daycares and should be nannies, etc. When we chip away at the binary, the nonbinary doesn’t feel so alien.